Deck Profile: Lou Orem’s Karakuri Banish Deck

June 19th, 2011

It’s no secret: more and more Duelists are playing LonefireBlossom and associated Plant-Type monsters to add speed and big Synchro Summoning to their Decks. A Plant Zombie Deck won YCS Orlando, combining Mezuki, ZombieMaster, and PlaguespreaderZombie with Glow-Up Bulb, Spore, and Dandylion for a Graveyard-heavy strategy that was tough to beat. LonefireBlossom’s been a lynchpin card for all sorts of Synchro variants too, often defining Decks like Tengu Synchro, Debris Synchro, and Doppel Synchro. Everybody from Lightsworn Duelists to Gadget fans have been experimenting with the five-card Plant suite.

That’s given rise to a counter-trend, as many Duelists have started playing DimensionalFissure. By banishing opposing monsters, a clever Duelist can keep key Plant cards from ever using their effects, stopping any Deck dead in its tracks if it focuses on the classic Lonefire cards. Fissure’s great against PotofAvarice, too, and when it’s active, Duelists can’t activate cards that have to be sent to the Graveyard to claim effects, it stops EffectVeiler, which has been a hugely popular card over the past many months.

Lou Orem played Karakuris at YCS Orlando, but he was back this time with a totally different build. Before Extreme Victory, the most successful Karakuri Decks were ones that used Lonefire Blossom and its Plant-Type pals to kick out Karakuri Shogun mdl 00 “Burei” and Karakuri Steel Shogun mdl 00X “Bureido” as quickly as possible. But with the introduction of Karakuri Komachi mdl 224 “Ninishi”, more and more Karakuri Duelists are playing pure Karakuri builds – no Plants. Those Decks don’t need to reuse cards from their Graveyard, which means they offer the perfect opportunity to run DimensionalFissure. Here’s what Orem’s Deck looked like.

Orem’s Deck is all about Synchro Summoning Burei and Bureido. Once either of the Karakuri Synchro Summons hit the field, it Special Summons another Karakuri from the Deck, which usually leads to more Bureis and Bureidos in turn. Multiple copies of the Level 8 Bureido is the ideal, since each Bureido has an effect that can allow for an extra draw once a turn. In pure Karakuri builds of the past, this goal was accomplished through the use of CyberDragon and InstantFusion, both of which bring out a Level 5 monster to use as a Synchro Material. Orem’s Deck runs both, but he also plays three copies of the new Karakuri Komachi mdl 224 “Ninishi” to fill the same need. Ninishi is a Level 3 Tuner, so it combos with those CyberDragons and InstantFusions. However, its effect lets its controller Normal Summon an additional “Karakuri” monster each turn. Paired with a Level 4 “Karakuri” monster, Ninishi leads to the speedy Synchro Summoning of the Level 7 Burei. That new level of consistency is what makes this strategy viable.

While the Synchro Summoning potential of the Karakuri Deck received a boost from Extreme Victory, the deck got more draw power as well. Bureido allowed for tricky hand-filling combos focused on changing the position of on-field Karakuris, but Karakuri Ninja mdl 749 “Nanashick” brings another powerful draw effect. Nanashick is a Level 5 with 2200 ATK. When it’s Normal Summoned, its controller draws a card for each of their face-up Defense Position “Karakuri” monsters. It works nicely with Nanashick, since Nanashick’s effect grants an extra Normal Summon. It also rolls into lengthy Synchro Summon combos as a finisher. If Orem makes a play that would result in a field of two “Karakuri” Synchros and a third non-Synchro “Karakuri”, he can bring the Synchros out in Defense Position and then Tribute the non-Synchro for Nanashick. That lets him draw additional cards for the Synchros.

There’s alot of experimentation going on here today from Karakuri players, and we’re seeing alot of different approaches. The idea of using DimensionalFissure may prove to be strong, but we’ll have to see further development of this Deck before we can make a verdict. It’s definitely a promising idea, and the future for Karakuris may be bright.